When I was growing up in P.G. my father drilled into our heads , the world doesn’t owe you a living, another saying was God helps those that help themselves. Did I hear right ? we are getting another homeless shelter above a parking lot downtown. The problem with the homeless shelter downtown , the people can only sleep in it the rest of the time they walking around or hanging around with nothing to do.I could be wrong.

I agree with Bitter. Stop providing for the homeless and maybe they will get a job like the rest of us. Then they can pay rent as well,. just a thought.

We need Mavericks to get on council, the Mamby Pambies need not apply. Things need to be turned upside down at City Hall so we can get to the root of the issues plaguing the city as a whole. The “party line” needs to die off, we need to move forward with common sense thinking within logical limits. This gent sounds a little too lame on the key issues.

a suggestion for bitter and pelham: Compare the costs of a night in a homeless shelter to a night in jail to a night in a hospital bed. I am pretty sure that a night in a homeless shelter will cost the “taxpayers” the least. Because, one way or another, based on PG weather, the homeless will be inside some where soon.

“Stop providing for the homeless and maybe they will get a job like the rest of us”

Have you ever tried to help a homeless person to be employed?

I thought not.

In my current employ I deal with many people with employment challenges, being as they are a significant demographic for our business.

NO ONE CHOOSES TO BE HOMELESS!

Some make poor choices in life and end up on the street. Some have psychiatric issues, and some have physical disabilities. Yet others are victims of toxic environments that do not promote positive employment cultures within their family groups. These are the ones that you see and you think, “my goodness, why doesn’t he/she get a job?” What you are not seeing are the invisible barriers to employment. They have addiction issues and Canada now recognizes addiction as an illness such as influenza or Ebola. After a life time of addiction, there are real actual physical and mental faculty deterioration. Add on to that a life time of rejection and discrimination based on appearances and perception and you end up with a homeless person with very little opportunity for employment.

Loki: “NO ONE CHOOSES TO BE HOMELESS!”

I have worked with many people with employment challenges for many years. There are many who choose to be homeless. Your agency and many others past and present know all to well many of the people on the streets.

You are funded now by the Province and used to be funded by the Federal gov. up to a few years ago. This is the Feds passing on the buck to the Provinces and they are trying to pass it on to others. This needs to stop. Homelessness etc. should be shared by the Feds and Province where there is money from all the people to help carry the load not at the municipal level.

Who do you think shut down the facilities for the people with psychiatric issues etc?

Why even the Province shut down the Northern Addiction Centre. Did you know that area was planned/slated years ago for the hospital expansion? There was never a shortage of need to shut that centre down.

Agencies like yours are funded by a group developing and proposing a contract and they submit to the Government hoping they can prove the need for their program.

If one was able to research the amount of times some of the “clients” access these groups will blow your mind! It is not working.

And then of course people in these agencies would not be payed anywhere from $24 – 35 an hour pending your position and agency.

guesswhat, I know that I’m not being very politically correct, but I tend to agree with you!

There are a great many people employed in our “social services” sector, all making pretty good livings living off of the poor, the homeless, the alcohol and drug addicted and those with mental health issues. Getting homes for the homeless, work for the unemployed and proper treatment for the addicted and/or the mentally ill would render many of these social service providers unnecessary and unemployed!

Unemployment counsellors need unemployed people, drug and alcohol counsellors need the drug and alcohol addicted, etc. This situation is a bit like the fox guarding the henhouse. Unfortunately, self-preservation will always win out and social service agencies and services continue to expand to meet a perceived ever increasing need!

“Roberts is not up to speed on the operating costs for the city, saying he thought the operational budget was about $50 million a year, when in fact it’s about $130 million.”

$50 Million doesn’t even cover the 800 or so staff.

Its great to see some discussion on the homeless topic. I agree that there are people that cant work if they have mental issues, but to say that a drug addict is no different to having a disease like Ebola is ridiculous. People choose to take drugs, drink alcohol,and become unemployable. Yes the Feds and Province have downloaded this to city level but its still TAX dollars. As i mentioned before people are coming to PG for what they can get for nothing.

Illness such as influenza or Ebola or not by choice in the majority of cases.

Whoever pays it is still tax dollars.

The big difference is if the money comes from the whole of the country, or province those tax dollars come from all taxpayers not just one city. This council and the agencies should be fighting tooth and nail to go after the province or fed government tax dollars.

Have any agencies got together and done this? No?

Has the city got together with other municipalities along with the UBCM? No?

Where are the stats per ratio?

The number of homeless is a reflection of the high quality of social services we have. Prince George is pretty much the hub of BC if you don’t live in Vancouver or Victoria.

JB –> folks in the Kelowna and Kamloops might take exception with your comment but the gist of what you say is correct … not much for social services by comparison when one looks at Vanderhoof or Smithers or McBride (substitute any other three northern towns or villages of your choice) … so the homeless end up in Prince George … although Terrace seems to have their share

For those interested in trivia, Burnaby has traditionally denied the presence of any homeless in their community (according to their Mayor) as they are all in the downtown east side. So there is validity to the argument that the homeless do gravitate to where the services exist.

And the end of the day, so what? Prince George also gets its share of the “good news” services as a regional hub; the university, the hospital, the college, the cancer clinic, the hospice house, the airport, Costco,(tongue in cheek) etc., etc. So servicing the homeless comes with the bundle … live with it.

live with it. It all depends where you live if you have to live with it, in P.G. they put the Citys problems in one area of the City its not fair to the people living in that area.

I agree that the feds have not just dropped the ball, they threw it away.
The need for psychiatric care has never been greater due to the types and quantities of illicit substances such as crack and meth, though alcohol has always claimed a large share of the misery. So many of those who blunder into taking these drugs end up unemployable then homeless.

On a related note, the PGNFC is building a fairly large men’s shelter on Quebec street, which will have significant overhead and require a lot of paid staff, all okay but heres hoping that men of any race or creed who are in need will be permitted to avail themselves of the services.
metalman.